St. Augustine Film Festival set for Jan. 17-20

Third annual event will feature 19 films

Friday, Jan 18, 2 p.m. in Gamache-Koger Theatre (GK) at Flagler College: AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT, directed by Alex de la Inglesia, Spain / 2012 / 95 min / Spanish w/English sub-titles A bitingly funny and often perverse satire on reality television and the effect of today’s economy. There were good and promising times for advertising guru Roberto...but has been a while since his big success launching new jingles and slogans. Now out of work for an extended period of time, he swallows his pride and returns to the company where he once was employed, ready to accept any position he can wrangle. Things do not go as planned...however, where one door shuts, another is opened and opportunity walks in.

The 3rd Annual St. Augustine Film Festival will take place Jan. 17-20 on the Flagler College campus and at Epic Theatres.

The four-day event will feature 19 films from Spain, Greece, Germany, France, Cameroon, India and the United States. There are six comedies, four thrillers, one musical, one dance film, two 3D animated films for kids, two documentaries and one skateboard film.

Organized by Flagler staff, students and Gregory von Hausch, the CEO of the Fort Lauderdale film festival, the event will feature a filmmakers panel discussion, a tribute to actor Hugh Marlowe, and four parties including an opening night party at Markland House, and a closing night dinner.

The founding sponsor of this year’s film fest is the The Arnold & Barbara Grevior Fund for Film Studies.

“It is our great pleasure to be a sponsor of the 3rd Annual St. Augustine Film Festival presented by Flagler College,” said Barbara and Arnold Grevior. “As long time supporters of the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, which is now in its 27th year, it was our desire to provide a similar type of film festival experience for the St. Augustine area.” We would like to thank Gregory von Hausch, CEO of FLIFF, Flagler College, and the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners for providing the support necessary to allow this film festival to continue in our community."

Screenings will be in the Gamache-Koger Theatre (GK), Lewis Auditorium at Flagler College (FCA), Kenan Hall (KH), the Virginia Room (VR); and children’s films can be seen at Epic Theatres (ET).

Online advance tickets are $7 for general admission;, $5 for seniors; and $3 for Flagler College students, staff and faculty. Free apps for iPad, iPhone or Google device are available (links below).

Advance tickets can be purchased online at fliff.com; tickets also will be available at the door.

Thursday, Jan 17, 7pm, FCA Opening Night Film... THE STORY OF LUKE , directed by Alonzo Mayo, USA / 2012 / 95 min / English Luke, 25, is autistic and has lived a sheltered life with his grandparents. When grandma dies and he is forced to live with his dysfunctional relatives who have no patience for him or his senile grandpa, who they quickly force into a nursing home. His grandfather’s final words: “Get a job. Find a girl. Live your own life. Be a man!” For the first time in his life, Luke has a mission. He is about to embark on a quest. Funny, sweet and unforgettable. p105

Thursday, Jan 17, 8:45pm, MH...Opening Night Party at Markland House Hors d’oeuvres by Gypsy Cab, wine by Barefoot. Tickets $25 includes the film.

Friday, Jan 18, Noon, GK...LORE, directed by Cate Shortland, Germany / 2012 / 109 min / German w/English sub-titles 1945. After their SS Nazi parents are taken into Allied custody, 5 German children undertake a harrowing journey that exposes them to the reality and consequences of their parents’ actions. Led by the eldest sibling, Lore, they set out across a devastated country to reach their grandmother in the north. p82

Friday, Jan 18, 2pm, GK... AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT, directed by Alex de la Inglesia, Spain / 2012 / 95 min / Spanish w/English sub-titles A bitingly funny and often perverse satire on reality television and the effect of today’s economy. There were good and promising times for advertising guru Roberto...but has been a while since his big success launching new jingles and slogans. Now out of work for an extended period of time, he swallows his pride and returns to the company where he once was employed, ready to accept any position he can wrangle. Things do not go as planned...however, where one door shuts, another is opened and opportunity walks in. p61

Friday, Jan 18, 5:30pm, GK...APARTMENT IN ATHENS, directed by Ruggero Dipaola, Greece-Italy / 2011 / 95 min / Greek & Italian w/English sub-titles Athens, 1943. An apartment is requisitioned to provide accommodation for a German officer. In the apartment live the Helianos, a middle-aged couple who used to be well-off. He is an intellectual, moderate and patient. She is an anxious housewife. They have a ten-year-old son who is filled with melodramatic revenge fantasies and a twelve-year old daughter. With the arrival of Captain Kalter everything changes. p60

Friday, Jan 18, 7:15pm, VR...Tribute To Actor Hugh Marlowe Flagler College Asso. Prof. of Philosophy, Hugh Marlowe, Jr. Shares stories and presents a variety of clips from classic films in which his father was featured. p34

Friday, Jan 18, 8pm, FCA... HOW DO YOU WRITE A JOE SCHERMANN SONG, Gary King, USA / 2012 / 104 min / English Joe dreams of hitting it big on Broadway. After landing an opportunity to write for an Off-Broadway musical, he is forced to cast either the love of his life Evey or his newly discovered muse Summer. The realities of show business prove to Joe that writing is easy, living is hard. p40

Saturday, Jan 19, Noon, GK... WALLY’S MISSON ON MARS, directed by Lisa Mills, USA / 2011 / 82 min / English A retired rocket scientist who worked on the Apollo engineering team now believes that sending humans to Mars is not a very good idea. Follow Wally Nelson to Kennedy Space Center and Washington, DC as he tries to convince astronauts, space administrators and politicians that spending money on solutions to world peace is a much better idea. This film traces the history of the Apollo program through Nelson’s point of view and is one of the first films released about the end of the Space Shuttle Era. p111

Saturday, Jan 19, 1pm, ET (and Sunday, Jan 20, 3pm, ET) ...TALES OF THE NIGHT, Michel Ocelot, France / 2011 / 84 min / French w/English sub-titles. The film weaves together six exotic fables each unfolding in a unique locale, from Tibet, to medieval Europe, an Aztec kingdom, the African plains, and even the Land of the Dead. In Ocelot’s storytelling, history blends with fairytale as viewers are whisked off to enchanted lands full of dragons, werewolves, captive princesses, sorcerers, and enormous talking bees - and each fable ends with its own ironic twist p47

Saturday, Jan 19, 2pm, GK... GARBAGE, directed by Phil Volken, USA / 2012 / 83 min / English How could a film about garbage be so sweet. Lenny and Abbott are two garbage men with the enviable route of Beverly Hills. Modest and unassuming, Abbott drives the truck. Lenny, who idolizes Hollywood, is the outside guy. They are both lovable guys who seem to enjoy their work and the few perks that come with it. On one fine day as they are empting their load at the county dump, something catches Lenny’s eye and almost immediately – the lives of our two heroes begin to change. p83

Saturday, Jan 19, 3pm, ET...SAMMY 2: ESCAPE FROM PARADISE, Ben Stassen, Belgium / 2012 / 100 min / 3D / English. Animated & in 3D...While helping a dozen or so hatchlings into the sea, Sammy and Ray are captured by poachers. Our heroes are sold to a hi-tech aquarium belonging to a restaurant. As soon as they get to the aquarium, Sammy and Ray start planning their escape, no easy task in this state-of-the-art facility. p46

Saturday, Jan 19, 3:15pm, VR... Frank Kearns: American Correspondent USA / 2012 / 90 min / English Like many American reporters in the 1950’s, Kearns was a World War II-era patriot who believed that Egypt and the Middle East’s pro- Arab movement was being influenced by the Soviet Union. He won major journalism awards when he risked his life to report on the real intentions of Algerian rebels. He was the first broadcast journalist to discover the insurgents weren’t communists or Arab extremists but were instead nationalists who believed in their country’s freedom. Following an 18-year, award-winning career at CBS News, Kearns was named a Benedum Professor of Journalism at West Virginia University where he taught from 1971 to 1983. In 1976, CBS told a Congressional hearing that Kearns also worked for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency while in Egypt in the 1950s. He denied it until his death in 1986.

Saturday, Jan 19, 4pm, GK... NINAH’S DOWRY, directed by Victor Viyuoh, Cameroon / 2012 / 95 min / English + Pidgin & Babanki w/English sub-titles At 20, Ninah is a veteran wife of 7 years and a mother of 3. She is stuck in an abusive relationship with no hope of change. Her family lives off her meager earnings from farm work while her husband, Memfi, drinks away his equally meager earnings as a shepherd. When news of her gravely ill father reaches Ninah, she decides to go speak her peace to her father even as her husband commands her to stay and get the farm ready before the rains come. This action sets off an incredible series of events with a whirlwind of suspense, thrills, and adventure set across the Cameroon landscape. p41

Saturday, Jan 19, 6pm, GK... BREAKFAST WITH CURTIS, directed by Laura Coella, USA / 2012 / 84 min / English A cadre of characters who live in the same charming but funky abode. In this tres bohemian household are Syd, an eccentric who dabbles in waxing poetic and imbibing frequent quantities of red wine; Pirate, his soul mate, not oblivious to Syd’s weirdness, just comfortably fond of it; Sadie, an elderly matron who has savored life to its fullest; Paola a free and introspective spirit who lives with Frenchy. Next door, Sylvie, Simon and Curtis their son seem ordinary enough, though as time slips by they begin to exhibit their own eccentricities. What is important to keep in mind – this is not your typical narrative – the characterizations, the finely crafted dialogue and the ambiance of the garden imbued neighborhood create a lilting and intoxicating respite from the typical universe others breathe. p63

Saturday, Jan 19, 8pm, FCA... DEADFALL, directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky, USA / 2012 / 94 min / English Winter. Somewhere near the Canadian border on the U.S. side. A pair of robbers are on the run with bags of cash from a freshly held up casino. With the heat gettin’ hotter, the pair split up in the frozen landscape. Not so far away, we meet Jay, a boxer who just finished doing time in the state pen and decides to head home to Ma ‘n Pa for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving. Pa is the retired sheriff and their homestead is quite a trek from civilization out in the snow covered country. p38

Saturday, Jan 19, 8:15pm, GK... VEER!, directed by Patrick Barry, USA / 2012 / 85 min / English Jesse had it all - a lucrative skateboarding contract, girls, fame and an extravagant lifestyle. Now ten years later, past his prime and his usefulness in this youth-driven culture, Jesse is dropped by his skate team. Broke, he moves in with his elderly grandmother only to discover his 17-year old niece, Samantha, crashing there as well. p110

Sunday, Jan 20, Noon, GK...GO GANGES!, J.J. Kelley & Josh Thomas, India / 2012 / 82 min / English + Hindi w/English sub-titles Film captures the danger, joy and significance of the mighty Ganges River when two explorers attempt to travel its length by any means possible. Josh Thomas and J.J. Kelley, the comic pair of Dudes on Media and the makers of the Emmy nominated documentary Paddle to Seattle, team once again. Will their Alaskan wilderness skills save them on the most populated river in the world? Journey to India on the heels of the expedition, there you’ll encounter the unspeakable and the divine. p73

Sunday, Jan 20, 1pm, ET...SAMMY 2: ESCAPE FROM PARADISE, Ben Stassen, Belgium / 2012 / 100 min / 3D / English. Animated & in 3D...While helping a dozen or so hatchlings into the sea, Sammy and Ray are captured by poachers. Our heroes are sold to a hi-tech aquarium belonging to a restaurant. As soon as they get to the aquarium, Sammy and Ray start planning their escape, no easy task in this state-of-the-art facility. p46

Sunday, Jan 20, 2pm, GK...THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE, directed by Claudia Johnson, USA / 2012 / 79 min / English This compelling and deeply compassionate film follows Pulitzer Prize nominee Claudia Johnson’s 19 year quest to penetrate the mysterious silence surrounding the story of Ruby McCollum, the educated wife of numbers racketeer ‘Bolita’ Sam and the richest African American woman in Live Oak, Florida, sentenced to the electric chair for the 1952 murder of her white doctor and alleged lover, LeRoy Adams. Ruby was never allowed to tell her story, on the stand or to reporters, so no one, including Zora Neale Hurston, who covered the notoriously unfair trial, could say why Ruby did it. p88

Sunday, Jan 20, 3pm, ET...TALES OF THE NIGHT, Michel Ocelot, France / 2011 / 84 min / French w/English sub-titles. The film weaves together six exotic fables each unfolding in a unique locale, from Tibet, to medieval Europe, an Aztec kingdom, the African plains, and even the Land of the Dead. In Ocelot’s storytelling, history blends with fairytale as viewers are whisked off to enchanted lands full of dragons, werewolves, captive princesses, sorcerers, and enormous talking bees - and each fable ends with its own ironic twist p47

Sunday, Jan 20, 3:15pm, VR...PINA, directed by Wim Wenders Germany / 2012 / 103 min / English In modern dance since the 1970s, few choreographers have had more influence in the medium than the late Pina Bausch. This film explores the life and work of this artist of movement while we see her company perform her most notable creations where basic things like water, dirt and even gravity take on otherworldly qualities in their dancing.

Sunday, Jan 20, 4pm, GK...SUPPORTING CHARACTERS, directed by Daniel Schechter, USA / 2012 / 87 min / English Best buds, Darryl and Nick are a film editing team, with passion for what they do, yet still realize they are in an appreciated but often unsung field. They work in the NY Indie scene on low budget films – we meet them collaborating on an elixir to cure a lousy film...and they have their hands full. As Art imitates Life, Nick and Darryl find the reverse can be perverse as well when their personal relationships and their chemistry could benefit from some self-editing. p106

Sunday, Jan 20, 5:30, FCA Closing Night Film......SEX, LIES & SURGERY, directed by Artus de Penguern, France / 2012 / 90 min / French w/English sub-titles When ER and GREY’S ANATOMY turn into a DALLAS kind of comedy, with love and money-related plots, a HANGOVER atmosphere, and A FISH CALLED WANDA characters, the result is THE LOVE CLINIQUE: a crazy (but classy) comedy for all! p44

Sunday, Jan 20, 7pm, MH Closing Night Dinner JOIN US at The Markland House for the Closing Night Dinner prepared by Carrabbas with wine by Barefoot. Tickets $25 includes the film.

**SAMMY & TALES OF THE NIGHT tickets benefit in part RB Hunt Elementary and The St John’s Children’s Museum.